Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath approved police commissioner system in two cities of Lucknow and Noida, few days after protests erupted in the State against the passage of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in 2019, says a new book authored by former State Director General of Police O.P Singh.
Mr. Singh, headed U.P. police from January 1, 2018- January 31, 2020. As many as 22 people were killed in U.P. after CAA was passed by the Parliament on December 9, 2019. Across the country, 83 persons were killed in protests against CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The CAA allows citizenship to “undocumented” six non-Muslim communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who entered India on or before December 31, 2014. There are apprehensions and fear that the Act, which is yet to be implemented, followed by a country-wide compilation of the NRC will benefit non-Muslims excluded from the citizens’ register, while excluded Muslims will have to prove their citizenship. Government had earlier informed the Parliament that “till now the Government has not taken any decision to prepare NRC at national level.”
“Post-CAA protests set the tone for a face-to-face-exchange with CM Yogi Adityanath. The police had no magisterial powers yet, but they needed the morale boosting support of being capable of taking timely decisions. A city like Lucknow, with a population of nearly 4 million, needed the Commissionerate,” he writes in the book Crime, Grime and Gumption, Case Files Of An IPS Officer.
The book says that after anti-CAA protests had erupted in Lucknow he was asked by CM how the its recurrence could be prevented.
“Sir, had the Commissionerate system been in operation, we would have contained the agitation far more effectively and in good time. The lack of it limits the actions of the police. We need a faster mechanism that would allow the police in respond in quick time,” the book says.
The Chief Minister said he was ready to give the proposal a serious thought and asked to expedite the paperwork.
The proposal was approved by the State Cabinet and on January 13, 2020, that Lucknow and Noida will have police commissionerate system.
The arrangement gives powers entrusted with district magistrates such as imposing curfew, use of fire, communication ban among others to the police.
A police reforms committee formed in 2004 under R.S. Mooshahary had recommended the police commissionerate system for effective handling of law and order in State capitals and cities which has a population of more than 10 lakh. Under this, the police commissioner is is the head of a unified police command structure, and is responsible for the force in the city, and directly accountable to the State government.
Under the “dual system,” the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police share powers and responsibilities of police in a district.
There are a total of 63 police commissionerates in 15 States and Union Territories in the country, with maximum such positions in Maharashtra-11, followed by Telangana-9, and West Bengal-7.
